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Sunday, 31 August 2014

Ultra Mega Power Projects: For the desired GDP growth in India

Last updated: January 20, 2017

Formidable Challenges in Indian Power Sector:

India has achieved significant
generation capacity addition in the last 50 years. Despite of this it continues
to face formidable challenges in bridging the gap between demand and supply. It
needs to add another 170 GW of installed generation capacity in the next decade
to get the desired 9% growth in GDP and this can be achieved only through large
capacity power projects.

Ultra Mega Power Project:

In view of this, the Government of India has come up
with the concept of Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP). These coal powered, super-critical technology based power
projects, each with a capacity of 4 GW or more and
each unit of 660 MW or 800 MW is a series of ambitious power projects planned by the Indian Government. So far 16 UMPPs have been envisaged
in various states including Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand,
Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tamil Nadu. Estimated
investment in each UMPP is approximately Rs 20,000 to 30,000 crores.

Super-critical Thermal power plants:

The term “super-critical” is used for
power plants operating at pressure above critical pressure; i.e. plants
operating above 225.56 kg/cm2 and 374.15 oC are called
super-critical thermal power plants. Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has
evaluated super-critical technology from the technical and economical point of
view and has recommended the same for Indian thermal power plants. Super-critical thermal generating units of 660 MW (steam pressure of 247 kg/cm2 and temperature of 535/563 oC) and 800 MW (temperature of 565/593 oC) is proposed for all future thermal power plants.

Super-critical Technology:

Power plants
based on super-critical technology has the advantage of lower CO2, NOX,
and SOX emission per kWh of electricity produced in comparison to
sub-critical power plants. As per the Government decision, in the 13th
FYP only super-critical technology based thermal power plants would be set up
in India.

The average tariff for these projects
is in the range of Rs 2-3 per unit which is much
lower than the recent tariffs. The projects are awarded to developers on
tariff-based International Competitive Bidding (ICB) on a Build-Own-Operate (BOO)
basis. CEA is the technical partner and Power Finance Corporation (PFC) is the
nodal agency for getting the basic infrastructure like land, water supply,
environment clearances, etc. In order to enhance investors’ confidence, and
reduce risk perception, PFC incorporates Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) for
each UMPP to undertake the bidding process on behalf of the beneficiary states.
Apart from bid process, the purpose of the SPVs is to obtain various clearances
for the projects.

Significant UMPP:

The first UMPP, developed by Tata Power at Mundra, Gujarat has been commissioned and contributes
4,000 MW (8 x 800 MW) of power to the Western grid. Sasan UMPP,
a 3,960 MW (6 x 660 MW) pit-head power plant is located in Madhya Pradesh. The
project has been allocated three captive coal mine blocks; with an envisaged
production of 25 million tonnes of coal per annum. When completed, this UMPP
become the largest integrated coal-cum-power plant in the country involving
almost 10,000 acres of land of which almost 7,000 acres would be coal mines.

The project was awarded to Reliance
Power through ICB process in August 2007. The estimated project cost is over
Rs. 27,000 crores (US$ 4.2 billion). Sasan is the first ever integrated-power
cum coal mine project with current operational capacity of 2640 MW. First unit
of 660 MW was commissioned in March 2013, second unit in January 2014, third
unit in April 2014 and fourth unit in May 2014. 5th Unit is synchronized with
grid and commissioning to be declared shortly. 6th and last unit is in advanced
stage of commissioning and expected to be commissioned in the next couple of
months. Power generated from the plant would be sold in Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand states of India at a levelized tariff of 1.196 INR/ kWh. The low tariff of the project is primarily because of the low cost of generation due to its pit head location and captive mines. Because of the advanced 'super-critical' boiler technology, the operating efficiency is higher and emissions are reduced, thereby making it a less polluting thermal power plant.

The Tilaiya UMPP also by Reliance Power, is another integrated pitpit-head
power plant with an aggregate capacity of 4 GW located at Jharkhand.

As on March 2014, India had
13.9 GW of installed generation capacity based on super-critical technology; of
which Adani Power has commissioned the maximum of 6.6 GW (10 units of 660 MW)
with plant location at Mundra, Tiroda (Maharashtra) and Kawai (Rajasthan) . The
3 x 660 MW Sipat-I is the only UMPP in the public sector owned by NTPC, the
rest have been commissioned by private sector.

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About Me

Hello, I am Manoj Nair, specialized in Heavy Electrical Equipment (M-Tech). Also Life Member of ISTE and Associate Member of IE(India).

Currently I am working as Consultant in the field of Electrical Distribution and Energy Conservation. Also worked as Faculty in Electrical Engg, engaged in teaching post graduate and under graduate students of Electrical & Electronics engineering. I have authored/co-authored 8 books on various subjects of electrical engineering.

Also worked in Electric Utility as an engineer and handling the various jobs related to installation and maintenance of distribution lines, transformers and the metering equipments.

In the free time I switch over to blogging, discussions related to power system, developing MATLAB coding for problems related to power system.